Restaurateur shames those who do a bunk

The owner of a Vietnamese restaurant at Rosalie in Brisbane is taking revenge on diners who eat and run without paying their bills.

Since opening Mints Vietnamese and Asian Cuisine in the upwardly mobile Rosalie village area five years ago, Anh Tran says she has had about 20 occasions when people have not paid for their meals.

Now she has had enough and is posting CCTV photos of the perpetrators on the front of her restaurant.

“I feel angry because I can't do anything at all but then I was talking to a policeman who is a customer and he said that I can put the photos of the people up,” Mrs Tran says.

Three weeks ago, a group of two families of six ate $123.90 worth of food before making a quick getaway, Mrs Tran says.

In the same week, a couple spent $44 and left without paying.

Both groups were named and shamed on the restaurant window. Mrs Tran says the couple returned after she posted their photo.

“The two people got very angry. Maybe someone told them about the picture and they came in and said 'why did you put the picture up – we remember we paid our bill?' So I tell them I can show them on the video but they said 'forget it – we don't have time for this, we'll pay and we are never coming back here'. Then I took the photo down.

“Another time this man came and he only spent $7 and he tried to pay by credit card. I told him that we have a $10 minimum. He got very mad and said that he had a $100,000 business account and I should put it on his credit card. I asked if he could please go to get some cash and he left but he never came back.”

Mrs Tran says other customers on her wall of shame have not returned to pay their bills. “Maybe some people really forget but I see some people eat very fast and run away.”

When contacted by goodfood.com.au, Queensland Police urged any restaurateurs to report incidents to them.